Products in particular have to be supplied to a cutting plane in high-performance slicing apparatus so that the products can be cut into slices. The cut-off slices then furthermore have to be grouped into portions and subsequently transported away from the cutting zone. Actively driven conveyor belts are normally used for this conveying work. They are either belt conveyors or band conveyors having relatively wide, flat belts or bands or strap conveyors having a plurality of relatively narrow individual straps which can in particular have a circular cross-section.
Those conveyors which supply the products to the cutting plane should normally reach up to just before the cutting plane to ensure an ideal traction of the products. These conveyors are therefore often also called traction belts.
Those conveyors which collect the cut slices and group them to form portions of a plurality of slices are usually called portioning belts. At least two conveyors are often used which are arranged after one another to be able directly to start the placing of new slices on the first conveyor again after the transfer of the portion from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. These at least two conveyors arranged after one another will also together be called a “portioning belt” within the framework of the present disclosure even though a plurality of individual conveyors arranged after one another are provided.
The invention is not restricted to such traction belts or portioning belts. The invention can in principle be realized at any kind of belt conveyor.
In practice, both the supply belts (in particular the traction belts) and the transport-away belts (in particular the portioning belts) are customarily greatly contaminated during the operation of a slicing apparatus. It is therefore necessary to clean these conveyor belts daily, frequently even several times daily. For this purpose, a removal of the belt bands or of the transport straps is normally required to be able to carry out a thorough cleaning.
It is known from the prior art to make possible such a removal in that the conveyors are suspended at one side at an apparatus frame to achieve a simple removal of the belt or band. In this respect, the conveyors remain in the apparatus during the cleaning. The disadvantage of such a procedure is that very huge belt racks are required as the width of the belt conveyor increases. Furthermore, a lot of room is required at the side next to the conveyor to remove the respective conveying means, for example the band, with a conveyor remaining at the apparatus.
Conveyors are furthermore known which can be removed simply including the respective conveying means. However, these conveyors are typically coupled to a drive unit via a coupling or via a coupling unit. This means that a coupling which establishes the connection to a drive motor in operation is seated on the drive roller of the conveyor. However, a very large width results due to such a type of construction since either the drive motor has to be arranged axially beside the drive roller of the conveyor or it is necessary to arrange a coupling unit with a bearing axially to the drive roller of the conveyor, with this coupling unit then having to be coupled to a drive motor via a further connection, e.g. a toothed belt.
Both variants result in a large width and moreover do not make it possible to connect a plurality of drive to a removable conveyor.